Scientists from the Jalali Lab, a part of University of California in Los Angeles [UCLA] developed a camera that captures 6.1 million frames per second. That's correct - 6.1 Million FPS! This number puts this prototype camera to be the fastest camera created in human history.

The camera itself is based on a laser that emits different Infra-Red frequencies to light up the targeted object. This technology - Serial Time-Encoded Amplified Microscopy [STEAM - direct link to research paper PDF document] is described in a brand new edition of Nature magazine. At the moment STEAM can take a picture with a resolution of only 3000 pixels, but if the future plans come to the surface, UCLA could to develop a version with 100 million fps.

I don't think we need 6.1 million frames for anything (says knowing he'll be proven utterly wrong and look 100% stupid in 10 years time).

The human eye can't tell the difference over (let's say) 100 FPS.
We could use more pixels per frame for orbital pictures, though.

The only thing this seems useful for is scientific observation.

High speed camera's are used by Ncap all the time

They do need a lot of light to do this kind of test tough. It's even this worse they can only turn on the lights for a few seconds before they burst from their own heat !
So it would be great for them if they can use less light, probably saves a lot on their electricity bill too